JAY-Z HITS THE BILLION MARK

The Brooklyn-born rapper has been at the top of his game for decades now, beginning from when he debuted as a budding rapper with his very owned Roc-A-Fella
records where his released his debut studio album Reasonable Doubtin 1996, and has produced some of the biggest artists like
Rihanna, Ne-Yo, Kanye West, and others. He also doubles as record producer, songwriter, record executive, entrepreneur, investor and philanthropist.

The race for the first billion

Just two years ago, Forbes presented
Jay-Z and long standing rapper Sean Combs AKA P Diddy as being "locked in a battle" in the race to accumulate their first billion. In fact, he beat
other rap moguls like Andre Young AKA Dr Dre, Birdman and Drake.

In 2018, Forbes listed Carter
as the wealthiest rapper with a $900 million net worth, while Combs came in second with a net worth of $820 million. Young ranked third with $770 million.
At the time, it was hard to predict which of the artists would hit the billion benchmark first. But, as time would tell, the Brooklyn-born rapper became
the first to join ranks with the four other black billionaires in the US. They are: Robert F. Smith,
the founder, chairman, and chief executive of Vista Equity Partners, Oprah Winfrey- The “Queen of All Media” has accumulated a massive net worth of
$2.5 billion according to the magazine,Michael Jordan the
basketball legend who made about $90 million during his stellar career in the NBA but however today, is worth an estimated $1.9 billion thanks to lucrative
endorsements, and finally David Steward, who is worth of $3 billion.

They then explain how they came to this conclusion, listing a breakdown of Carter’s major assets.
“To calculate his net worth, we looked at the artist’s stakes in companies like Armand de Brignac champagne—applying our customary discount to
private firms—then added up his income, subtracting a healthy amount to account for a superstar lifestyle,” states the report. His assets are
as follows:

Armand de Brignac champagne – $310 million

Cash and investments, including a $70 million stake in Uber – $220 million

D’Ussé cognac – $100 million

Tidal streaming service – $100 million

Roc Nation – $75 million

Music catalog – $75 million

Art collection – $70 million

Real estate – $50 million

Shawn Carter is proving to the world and to the black community in particular that it does not matter where you are born or the fortunes you are born into.
You can, through hard work and commitment, make it from the bottom right up to the top. As a philanthropist, Jay has encouraged millions in the world
with his rags-to-riches story. Even though he prefers giving back in anonymity, he founded the Shawn Carter Foundation back in 2003 to improve the
lives of at-risk youths and has donated more than 4 million dollars to community and scholarship programs. He has also done several concerts whose
proceeds have gone entirely to resolve humanitarian issues..